THEIR  RELATIONS 


PRIMARY  AND  HIGHER  INSTITUTIONS  OF  LEARNING, 


AND  TO   TBX 


WELFARE  AND  PROGRESS   OF  SOCIETY, 


Stl  WITH 


THEIR  FUTURE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES, 


BY 


WILLIAM  F.  PHELPS,  A.  M., 

Principal  of  the  New  Jersey  State  Normal  School. 


TRENTON : 

PHINTKI)  AT  THE  OFFICE  OF  THE  "TRUE  AMEl: 
(II 


NORMAL    SCHOOLS: 


THEIR  RELATIONS 


PRIMARY  AND  HIGHER  INSTITUTIONS  OF  LEARNING, 


WELFARE  AND  PROGRESS  OF  SOCIETY, 


TOOETUEE  WITH 


THEIR  FUTURE  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


WILLIAM  R  PHELPS,  A.  M., 

Principal  of  the  New  Jersey  State  Normal  School. 


TRENTON : 
PRINTED  AT  THE  OFFICE  OF  THE  "  TRUE  AMERICAN." 

1857. 


Library 

L.B 


PJVln 


TO   THE 

HONORABLE  RICHARD  S.  FIELD, 

OF     PRINCETON, 
TI1E     EARNEST,    DEVOTKI),     AND    INTELLIGENT    ADVOCATE     OP 

glormal    Schools, 

AXD  OP 

POPULAR    EDUCATION, 

WHOSE      INTEREST     FOR     THE      CAUSE     IS     GENEROUSLY     MANIFESTED 

BY     DEEDS     NO     LESS     THAN     BY     WORDS, 
THESE  HUMBLE  PAGES    ARE   GRATEFULLY  INSCRIBED  BY 

HIS    OBLIGED    FRIEND, 

THE  AUTHOR. 


368855 


PREFATORY  REMARKS. 

THE  following  pages  form  Parts  Second  and 
Third,  of  the  Second  Annual  Report  of  the  Prin- 
cipal of  the  New  Jersey  State  Normal  School,  for 
the  year  ending  February  9th,  1857.  They  owe 
their  existence  in  the  present  shape  alike  to  the 
suggestion,  and  the  liberality  of  the  Hon.  Richard 
S.  Field,  President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of 
that  Institution. 

Whatever  of  incongruity  they  may  exhibit 
may  be  attributable  to  their  separation  from  the 
document  before  referred  to. 

The  undersigned  begs  leave  respectfully  to 
submit  them  to  the  consideration  of  the  friends  of 
that  higher  and  nobler  form  of  education,  which 
is  so  much  required  by  the  exigencies  of  our  age 
and  people,  and  which  properly  organized  and 
conducted  Normal  Schools  are  so  eminently  fitted 
to  develop  and  disseminate,  in  the  humble  hope 
that  they  may  be  instrumental  in  awakening  among 
all  classes  a  more  just  appreciation  of  the  important 
class  of  Institutions  to  which  they  are  devoted. 

W.  F.  PHELPS. 

New  Jersey  State  Normal  School, 
Trenton,  Feb.  9M,  1857. 


RELATIONS  OF  NORMAL  SCHOOLS  TO  SOCIETY. 

An  Examination  of  the  Relations  of  Normal  Schools  to  the  Primary 
and  Higher  Institutions  of  Learning,  and  hence  to  the  Welfare  and 
Progress  of  Society. 


Education,  viewed  in  its  most  comprehensive  sense,  may  be 
defined  to  be  both  a  Science  and  an  Art. 

As  a  Science,  it  investigates  the  laws  which  regulate  the 
harmonious  development  of  the  physical,  intellectual,  and 
moral  powers  of  the  human  being. 

As  an  Art,  it  applies  those  laws  to  the  cultivation,  and,  as 
far  as  possible,  to  the  perfection  of  man's  three-fold  nature. 

Regarded  in  this  imposing  aspect,  there  is  not  an  organ  of 
the  body,  a  faculty  of  the  mind,  nor  an  affection  or  passion  of 
the  soul,  which  its  forces  should  not  aim  to  reach,  cultivate, 
strengthen,  or  subdue. 

Between  education  and  learning,  between  an  educated  man 
and  a  learned  man,  there  is  a  marked  distinction.  While 
profound  attainments  in  positive  knowledge  are  by  no  means 
to  be  underrated  or  undervalued,  neither  are  they  to  be  sub- 
stituted for  that  thorough  discipline,  that  careful  training  of 
all  the  powers  and  faculties  which  alone  can  give  sound 
minds  in  vigorous  healthy  bodies — which  makes  one  know, 
feel  and  practice  his  duties  and  obligations  to  himself,  to  his 
family,  to  his  neighbor,  to  humanity,  and  to  the  beneficent 
Author  of  his  being. 

A  merely  learned  man  is  one  who  has  made  profound  at- 
tainments in  knowledge,  regardless  of  the  ability  requisite  to 
make  those  attainments  available  for  the  elevation  and  im- 


8 


provement  of  his  fellow-creatures,  and  for  the  advancement  of 
human  society.  He  may  be  apt  to  acquire,  but  incompetent 
to  impart,  to  disseminate,  to  use,  to  apply.  An  intellectual 
giant,  he  may  be  a  moral  dwarf,  a  social  non-entity,  a  physi- 
cal imbecile  ;  a  human  encyclopedia,  his  stores  of  knowledge 
may  be,  and  often  are,  locked  up  within  the  narrow  precincts 
of  his  own  individuality. 

An  educated  man,  on  the  other  hand,  is  he  who  superadds 
to  his  knowledge  the  skill,  the  disposition,  and  the  ability  to 
use  it  for  the  promotion  of  the  great  objects  of  human  exist- 
ence— for  the  moral,  intellectual,  social  and  material  progress 
of  humanity.  He  is  a  man  of  action  as  well  as  of  acquisi- 
tion. He  is  not  only  an  intelligent,  but  a  useful  man ;  a 
healthy,  vigorous  man ;  an  honest  man,  "  the  noblest  work 
of  God."  He  measures  his  actual  attainments  in  knowledge 
and  virtue,  in  a  great  degree,  by  their  availability  and  his 
opportunity  for  bringing  himself  and  his  brethren  into  har- 
mony with  those  immutable  laws  by  which  the  Creator  upholds 
and  governs  every  domain  of  his  universe. 

The  most  perfect  type  of  human  wisdom  and  of  human 
power  would  therefore  undoubtedly  be  what  may  be  denomi- 
nated an  educated  scholar;  or,  if  you  please,  an  educated 
learned  man.  Such  a  man  contains  within  himself  not  only 
a  vast  reservoir  of  power,  but  he  is  at  the  same  time,  so  to 
speak,  the  engine  through  which  that  power  is  applied  and 
the  engineer  to  control  its  movements  and  guide  them  to  the 
production  of  noble  and  beneficent  results. 

But  there  is  another  fundamental  truth  too  often  disre- 
garded, which  in  this  connection  may  not  be  altogether  out 
of  place.  The  Creator,  in  his  infinite  wisdom,  while  bestow- 
ing upon  his  creatures  the  same  general  characteristics  of 
mind  and  soul,  while  giving  to  all  the  same  order  of  faculties, 


9 


has  yet  impressed  upon  each,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  peculiar 
and  special  individuality.  Mankind  may  thus  be  said  to  be 
an  embodiment  of  unity  in  diversity.  While  all  have  powers 
to  be  developed  and  cultivated,  while  all  have  responsibilities 
to  meet  and  duties  to  perform,  yet  it  is  not  to  be  supposed 
that  all  are  to  be  fused  in  the  same  crucible,  or  run  through 
the  same  stereotyped  mould.  As  each  has,  to  a  limited 
extent,  a  peculiar  organization,  so  has  each  a  correspondent 
special  adaptation  ;  and  this  adaptation  is  to  be  sought  out, 
preserved,  improved,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  perfected,  to  the 
end  that  each  individual  may  be  prepared  to  act  well  his 
part  in  the  grand  drama  of  human  life. 

Now,  Gentlemen,  the  question  is,  what  kind  of  men  does 
Society,  does  our  Commonwealth,  does  our  Country,  does  the 
World  most  need  ?  This  is  the  great  question  of  the  age ; 
and  upon  its  proper  solution  depend  not  only  the  welfare  and 
progress  of  society,  but  its  very  existence  also. 

Since  human  society  is  made  up  of  rational  beings,  if  it 
has  wants,  those  wants  must  have  their  origin  in  the  neces- 
sities of  the  individuals  that  compose  it.  But  the  necessities 
of  individuals  may  all  be  summed  up  in  the  means  that  are 
required  for  the  proper  development  and  expansion  of  their 
manifold  and  undying  faculties.  The  more  perfect  and  the 
more  widely  diffused  these  means,  therefore,  the  more  perfect 
the  society  and  the  less  its  wants.  It  hence  follows  that  the 
great,  unceasing,  relentless  want  of  society  is,  that  of  culti- 
vated, refined,  and  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term,  educated 
men  ;  not  the  learned  few,  but  the  educated  many.  This  want 
properly  met,  subordinate  ones  will  gradually  disappear ;  and 
the  innumerable  forms  of  vice  and  crime,  of  injustice  and 
wrong,  with  their  endless  train  of  nameless  woes,  will  be 
supplanted  by  the  benignant  reign  of  virtue  and  intelligence, 


10 

and  the  consequent  blessings  of  individual  and  social  order 
and  happiness. 

"  So  shall  licentiousness  and  black  resolve 
Be  rooted  out,  and  virtuous  habits  take 
Their  place;  and  genuine  piety  descend, 
Like  an  inheritance,  from  age  to  age." 

It  is  evident,  that  for  the  rearing  of  such  individuals, 
and  for  the  production  of  such  results  as  these,  it  is  idle  to 
rely  upon  divided,  and  one-sided,  and  partial  efforts.  As 
the  greatest  want  of  human  society  is  man  himself, — man, 
"broad-shouldered,  symmetrical,  swift"  man,  purified,  enno- 
bled, exalted — man,  trained,  individualized,  educated, — so  it 
is  equally  clear  that  the  means  for  the  accomplishment  of 
this  end  must  be  commensurate  with  the  lengths,  breadths, 
depths  and  urgency  of  the  want  which  is  to  be  supplied. 
Such  a  work  needs,  nay,  must  have,  to  succeed,  the  unflag- 
ging interest,  the  untiring  zeal,  the  undivided  influence,  the 
cordial  sympathy,  the  earnest  co-operation  of  every  citizen, 
irrespective  of  party,  sect,  or  creed.  In  the  solution  of  this 
complicated  problem,  the  family,  the  school  in  all  its  grada- 
tions and  ramifications,  the  parent,  the  Teacher  in  all  his 
varied  relations,  the  patriot,  the  philanthropist,  the  Chris- 
tian, each  and  all  have  solemn  duties  to  perform  in  virtue 
of  a  common  existence,  common  interests,  and  a  common 
destiny. 

The  development  of  the  mind,  body,  and  all  the  parts  of 
human  life  must,  to  be  real,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  be 
progressive  and  slow.  Beginning  with  the  first  dawn  of 
being,  the  work  must  advance  by  toilsome,  gradual  steps, 
through  the  successive  periods  of  infancy,  childhood  and 
youth,  up  to  the  maturity  and  vigor  of  symmetrical  manhood. 
So  far  as  Nature  is  left  to  carry  on  the  processes  of  tuition, 


11 

she  faithfully  observes  her  own  well-defined  and  benignant 
laws.  It  is  only  man  in  his  blindness  and  ignorance  that 
errs,  and  mars  the  exquisite  handiwork  committed  to  his 
charge.  The  great  problem  then,  in  the  education  of  the 
present  day,  is  to  observe,  to  learn  and  to  apply  those  whole- 
some lessons  which  Nature  is  ever  ready  to  impart  for  our 
guidance  and  direction,  in  the  work  before  us. 

The  first  lessons  of  infancy  and  early  childhood  are  taught 
in  the  school  of  home  with  its  clustering  affections,  its  deep- 
toned  sympathies,  and  its  winning  smiles.  It  is  here  that  the 
foundations  of  the  future  character  are  begun.  It  is  here 
that  for  good  or  evil  the  young  mind  receives  its  first  impres- 
sions. Are  these  foundations  laid  in  intelligence  and  founded 
in  love?  Are  these  early  impressions  all  faithful  transcripts 
from  pure  and  pious  hearts?  If  so,  there  is  more  than  a 
presumption,  there  is  almost  a  certainty,  that  the  race  thus 
commenced  will  be  one  of  virtuous  youth,  of  honorable,  use- 
ful manhood,  and  of  tranquil  old  age.  If  otherwise,  there  is 
more  than  a  prophecy  of  a  weary,  wasted  life,  and  an  ignoble 
end. 

From  the  home-circle,  passing  to  the  pupilage  of  the  Pri- 
mary School,  the  child  is  subjected  to  the  more  direct  appli- 
ances of  the  educational  process.  It  is  here,  and  at  this 
tender  age,  that  the  potent  influence  of  the  professional 
Teacher  is  first  brought  to  bear  upon  his  impressible  nature. 
If,  perchance,  the  home-training  has  been,  and  still  is,  wise 
and  judicious,  the  task  of  the  Teacher  becomes  comparatively 
easy,  and  his  burden  light;  for  he  has  but  to  co-operate 
with  the  parent  in  the  continuation  of  a  work  already  begun. 
But  if,  as  in  a  majority  of  cases,  the  education  of  the  fireside 
has  been  a  work  of  perversion  and  misdirection,  if  only  a 
superficial  foundation  has  been  laid,  if  habits  of  disobedience 


12 


and  disorder  prevail,  if  there  be  an  absence  of  parental  sym- 
pathy, co-operation  and  support,  his  position  becomes  one  of 
almost  overwhelming  anxiety  and  insurmountable  difficulty. 
It  is  at  this  stage,  and  surrounded  by  these  common — alas  ! 
too  common — circumstances,  that  he  is  called  upon  to  exer- 
cise all  the  skill  and  all  those  high  attributes  which  his 
nature  can  command,  for  the  promotion  of  the  work  com- 
mitted to  his  charge. 

Even  under  the  most  favorable  conditions,  the  merely  in- 
tellectual training  of  the  young  is  a  task  of  exceeding  com- 
plexity. To  comprehend  the  capacities,  the  peculiarities, 
the  attainments,  the  wants  of  individual  minds ;  to  bring  them 
under  a  proper  classification ;  so  to  adjust  the  processes  of 
tuition  as  to  arouse  their  latent  energies  into  vigorous  action; 
to  awaken  a  desire  for  advancement  in  the  paths  of  knowledge ; 
to  stimulate  each  and  all  to  manly  exertion  and  a  heroic  self- 
reliance,  is  an  undertaking  of  no  ordinary  magnitude.  But 
when,  superadded  to  this,  the  Teacher  is  called  upon  to  guide 
the  development  of  those  still  higher  attributes  of  our  nature, 
to  impress  upon  the  young  those  lessons  of  morality  and 
Christian  virtue,  those  duties  which  they  owe  to  themselves, 
to  their  fellow-creatures,  and  to  their  Creator;  when  he 
passes  a  step  further  and  assumes  to  train  his  charge  to  the 
practice  of  these  duties,  he  undertakes  a  work  which,  in  mag- 
nitude and  importance,  is  commensurate  with  the  imperish- 
able nature  and  the  priceless  worth  of  the  material  upon 
"which  his  forces  are  expended. 

It  is  thus  that  we  are  to  look  to  the  joint  partnership  of 
the  family  and  the  Primary  School  for  the  origin  and  early 
development  of  that  perfect  stature  of  manhood  which  the 
world  so  much  needs,  and  which  will  surely  yet  rise  up  to 
adorn,  to  dignify,  and  to  bless  a  coming  age.  It  is  to  these, 


13 

and  especially  to  the  latter,  that  we  are  to  look  for  those 
peculiarly  complicated  and  philosophical  formative  processes 
that  alone  can  bring  order  out  of  chaos,  give  to  the  youthful 
mind  its  shape  and  direction,  inspire  it  with  an  undying  love 
of  truth,  impart  to  it  those  habits  of  patient  application  and 
of  methodical  procedure  so  essential  to  conduct  it  to  definite 
and  useful  results,  and  implant  the  desire  and  prepare  the 
way  for  that  more  enlarged  culture  which  successive  schools 
of  superior  grade  may  be  so  well  adapted  to  secure. 

If  this  great  work  be  not  done  by  these  agencies,  then  it 
will  not  be  done  at  all,  and  we  may  as  well  abandon  the  ex- 
periment of  a  comprehensive  system  of  universal  education. 
It  is  in  vain  that  we  endeavor  to  make  up  in  the  High  School 
and  the  College  for  the  radical  deficiencies  of  the  Common 
School.  As  well  may  we  attempt  to  purify  the  fountain  by 
cleansing  the  stream  that  flows  from  it.  The  functions  of 
the  Primary  School  are  pre-eminently  formative  and  funda- 
mental; and  beyond  this  work  it  cannot,  with  either  propriety 
or  safety,  be  allowed  to  go.  To  depart  from  it  is  unmitigated 
failure  and  irreparable  injury.  The  task  which  in  the 
economy  of  Nature  is  assigned  to  it,  is  all  that  the  most 
assiduous  care,  the  most  ample  means,  and  the  most  untiring 
devotion  will  enable  it,  under  the  most  favorable  circum- 
stances, to  fulfill.  Its  work  well  done,  that  of  its  legitimate 
successors  will,  with  comparative  ease,  be  accomplished. 

Beyond  the  Primary  Schools,  in  a  complete  system  of 
education  adapted  alike  to  the  wants  of  our  varied  na- 
tures and  to  the  necessities  of  human  society,  there  must 
lie,  on  the  one  hand,  properly  organized  and  conducted,  the 
Grammar  School,  the  High  School,  and  the  College,  or  their 
equivalents;  and  on  the  other,  the  "Real"  and  the  Poly- 
technic Schools,  little  known  in  our  own  country,  but  des- 


tined  in  the  future  to  take  their  appropriate  places  in  the 
great  scheme  of  public  instruction. 

These  two  distinct  classes  of  Institutions  are  undoubtedly 
the  types  of  two  distinct  forms  of  education,  each  complete  in 
itself,  and  each  adapted,  under  suitable  organization  and 
management,  to  meet  two  distinct  classes  of  wants  in  the 
economy  of  society.  These  wants  may  be  denominated  the 
Philological,  or  those  which  pertain  to  language  in  its  rela- 
tions to  thought,  including  grammar,  rhetoric,  criticism,  the 
interpretation  of  authors,  history  and  antiquities;  and  the 
"  Real,"  or  those  -which  relate  to  objects  or  things,  and  their 
relations  to  each  other  and  to  man  himself.  These  classi- 
fications seem  to  be  entirely  natural,  and  to  some  extent,  the 
result  of  that  special  organization  and  adaptation,  before 
alluded  to  as  existing  in  individuals  of  the  human  species. 
The  Institutions  of  the  first  class  named,  followed  out  to 
their  legitimate  specialties,  give  rise  to  Schools  of  Law,  Di- 
vinity, &c. ;  while  those  of  the  second,  lead  to  Schools  of 
Medicine,  Natural  History,  Mining,  Engineering,  Agriculture, 
and  others  of  like  character. 

Of  these  two  forms  of  education,  the  first,  for  obvious 
reasons,  is  the  most  ancient  and  the  most  prevalent.  But 
with  the  rapid  development  of  modern  science  and  its  appli- 
cation to  the  manifold  purposes  of  life,  it  cannot  be  doubted 
that  the  "Real"  will  assume  that  position  in  the  regards  of 
mankind  to  which  its  transcendent  importance  entitles  it. 
And  not  alone  on  account  of  the  merely  utilitarian  tendencies 
of  science  is  it  destined  to  be  more  generally  cultivated 
through  the  instrumentality  of  schools,  but  pre-eminently, 
because  it  unfolds  to  man  the  creature  an  unfailing  source 
of  happiness  and  felicity  in  the  contemplation  of  the  works 
of  the  Creator ;  enabling  him,  through  a  mastery  of  the 


15 


laws  of  the  material  universe,  better  to  comprehend  the  great 
plan  of  God  in  creation,  and  leading  him  to  adore  and  praise 
that  All-wise  and  Eternal  Being  who  hath  thus  indeed  mani- 
fested himself  "Philologically"  and  "Really,"  in  the  two-fold 
sense  of  his  word  and  his  works. 

If,  Gentlemen,  the  foregoing  brief  summary  has  been  made 
intelligible,  it  will  readily  be  understood  that  from  the  Pri- 
mary School  as  a  foundation,  other  Institutions  must  succes- 
sively arise  adapted  to  carry  on  to  completion  the  work  already 
begun.  They  should  flow  from  it  as  naturally  as  the  stream 
flows  from  its  source,  widening  and  deepening  with  each  influx 
of  its  tributaries  as  it  moves  majestically  onward  to  the 
sea.  When  we  understand  and  appreciate,  as  we  ought,  the 
object  which  these  successive  Institutions  are  designed  to 
answer,  we  shall  give  to  them  such  an  organization  as  will  fit 
them  for  the  progressive  development  of  the  complex  forces 
of  our  three-fold  nature.  They  will  thus  become  but  logical 
parts  of  one  consistent  harmonious  whole,  each  adapted  to  its 
special  functions,  each  laboring  for  and  aspiring  to  the  same 
desirable  and  comprehensive  end. 

From  this  commanding  stand-point,  having  in  full  view  the 
nature  of  the  work  which  the  education  of  the  present  day 
proposes,  as  well  as  the  entire  system  of  means  by  which  this 
work  is  intended  to  be  accomplished,  it  is  an  easy  task  to 
trace  the  relation  of  Normal  Schools  to  the  great  scheme  of 
public  education,  and  to  the  welfare  and  progress  of  that 
society  whose  most  urgent  necessity  is  that  of  earnest,  enter- 
prising, active,  working,  intelligent,  moral,  religious  men,  de- 
voted to  the  great  interests  of  their  species  and  to  the 
fulfilment  of  those  high  destinies  which  man  is  placed  here 
to  work  out. 

It  will  be  easily  seen   that  they  aim   to  strike  a  powerful 


and  effective  blow  at  evils  at  once  radical  and  deep,  that  they 
seek  to  remove  difficulties  and  impediments  at  once  serious 
and  overwhelming,  which  beset  man  at  the  very  outset  of  his 
disciplinary  and  preparatory  career.  Descending  to  those 
deep  well-springs  of  individual  and  social  life,  welfare,  pro- 
gress, and  happiness — the  Primary  Schools — they  labor  to 
purify,  elevate  and  improve.  Recognizing  the  simple  truth 
that  "it  is  the  master  that  makes  the  school,"  they  take  the 
teacher  by  the  hand,  unfold  to  his  view  the  fearful  and  won- 
derful structure  of  this  complex  physical  being,  teach  him  to 
look  in  upon  the  mysterious  spirit  that  animates  it,  to  under- 
stand, as  far  as  possible  its  nature  and  capacities,  to  observe 
its  manifestations,  to  master  its  laws,  to  investigate  the 
methods  by  which  its  subtile  forces  are  to  be  drawn  out,  train 
him  to  their  application,  and  send  him  forth  over  the  lengths 
and  breadths  of  the  land  to  wake  up  the  latent  energies  of  its 
embryo  citizens,  to  infuse  into  the  home  circle  a  higher  appre- 
ciation of  parental  duty  and  obligation,  and  to  animate  the 
public  heart  with  a  livelier  interest  in  that  great  work  which 
should  ever  be  its  chief  concern. 

Hence  it  is  that  Normal  Schools,  by  the  direct  and  power- 
ful influence  which  they  must  inevitably  exert  upon  the 
principal  sources  of  public  intelligence,  virtue,  and  happi- 
ness, will  serve  to  invigorate  and  intensify  the  entire  social 
organization.  If  conducted  in  accordance  with  their  true 
intent  and  spirit,  if  conducted  as  they  may  and  should  be, 
they  will  do  more  in  the  course  of  years  for  primary  edu- 
cation, for  the  education  of  the  fireside  and  the  Common 
School,  and  hence  for  the  real  welfare  of  society,  than  all 
other  agencies  combined.  For  who  does  not  know  that  the 
moral  and  intellectual  renovation  of  entire  neighborhoods  is 
often  effected  by  the  almost  silent,  yet  potent  influence  of  a 


IT 


good  school  and  a  faithful,  intelligent,  skillful  and  conscien- 
tious Teacher  of  youth?  The  heart  of  the  true  parent  is 
said  to  be  bound  up  in  his  child ;  and  if  the  Teacher  can 
mould  that  child — like  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter — to 
his  will,  by  what  a  natural  and  easy  transition  may  he  not 
work  upon  the  parent  too  ?  leading  him  to  a  knowledge  and 
practice  of  the  duties  which  he  owes  to  those  who  are  dear 
to  him  as  the  "  apple  of  his  eye,"  and  to  his  brethren  of  a 
common  heritage. 

But  Normal  Schools,  by  virtue  of  their  diffusion  of  the 
great  principles  of  education,  and  the  improved  and  philoso- 
phical methods  of  training  based  thereon,  by  the  desire  and 
ability  for  further  advancement  which  they  impart  through 
their  pupils  to  the  young,  by  the  habits  of  manly  self-reli- 
ance which  they  instill  and  by  the  almost  incredible  abridg- 
ment of  labor  and  of  time  which  they  secure,  are  destined  to 
play  an  important  part  in  that  modification  and  regeneration 
of  all  those  institutions  growing  out  of  the  Primary  Schools, 
which  are  certain  gradually  to  take  place.  These  Institu- 
tions will  be  forced  to  reorganize  on  a  more  comprehensive 
and  philosophical  basis.  They  will  be  obliged  more  fully  to 
recognize  the  great  truth,  that  the  office  of  the  school,  of 
whatever  grade,  is  not,  and  cannot  be,  to  make  profound 
scholars,  but  rather  to  train  the  powers  of  the  student;  to 
nrra  him  with  the  means  and  methods,  by  the  proper  and  dili- 
gent use  of  which  he  may  himself  become  learned,  and  wise, 
and  good  ;  to  teach  him  the  uses  of  knowledge  ;  to  qualify  him 
for  its  judicious  application  ;  to  impress  upon  him  the  dignity 
and  duty  of  labor :  and  thus  to  qualify  him  for  whatever 
position  on  the  busy  stage  of  life  a  beneficent  God  may 
assign  him. 

We  need  not  mistake  the  signs  of  the  times;  we  need  not 


18 

close  our  eyes  and  ears  to  the  teachings  of  experience.    What 
has  been  done,  and  is  doing  on  another  theatre,  can  he  done 
and  will  be  done  in  our  own  land.     While  this  grand  idea 
of  education  has  attained  on  a  less  congenial  soil  a  degree 
of  development  hitherto  unequaled  and  unknown,  how  can  we 
doubt  that,  fostered  by  the  genius  of  a  people  and  a  govern- 
ment, whose  hopes   and  whose   safety  are  based  upon  its 
legitimate  results,  it  is  destined  here,  to  its  noblest,  fullest, 
most  unlimited  expansion.     In  those  countries  where  educa- 
tion is  the  most  complete  and  the  most  universal,  Normal 
Schools  are  the  most  numerous  and  the  most  nearly  perfect ; 
and  they  have  been  the   all-potent   agency,  by  means  of 
which,  this  completeness  and  universality  have  been  reached. 
They  have  accomplished  this  work  by  regenerating  and  vivi- 
fying the  Primary  Schools,  impelling  them  to  lay  a  broad 
and  deep  foundation,  as  well  as  creating  an  unconquerable 
desire  in  the  youthful  mind   for  higher  attainments,  by  a 
rigorous  mastery  of  elementary  principles  and  a  judicious 
application  of  the  same  at  every  stage  of  its  progress.     Dis- 
carding the  dogmatic  modes  of  teaching  which  compel  the 
pupil  to  take  on  trust  the  unqualified  dicta  of  the  Master, 
and  which  are  alike  destructive  of  intellectual  freedom  and 
rational   progress,  they  aim  to  develop  and  to  disseminate 
those  means  and  methods  of  tuition  which  result  from  an  intel- 
ligent perception  and  application  of  those  laws  which  God  has 
imposed  upon  the  human  faculties.     And  while  laboring  for 
the  improvement  of  the  intellectual,  they  strive  also  to  draw 
out  the  moral  powers  and  to  inculcate  those  kindly,  cour- 
teous, and  fraternal  sentiments  which   should  regulate  the 
intercourse  of  mankind  in  the  routine  of  social  life.     Passing 
even  further  still,  they  have  been  made  the  instruments  for 
infusing  into  the  entire  texture  of  the  Teacher's  life,  en- 


19 

abling  him  thus  to  inculcate  it  in  turn  upon  the  hearts  of  the 
future  citizens,  a  spirit  of  contentment  with  whatever  lot  in 
the  order  of  Providence  may  be  assigned  him,  and  a  faith- 
ful discharge  of  the  duties,  however  humble,  which  that  lot 
imposes. 

If  we  do  not  under  our  own  genial  skies  mould  them  to 
the  accomplishment  of  all,  and  more  than  all,  of  the  high 
purposes  which  have  been  indicated,  it  will  not  be  because 
of  their  exotic  origin,  or  of  their  inherent  incompatibility  with 
our  peculiar  needs,  or  of  their  lack  of  a  direct  and  powerful 
relation  to  our  most  vital  interests,  either  as  individuals  or 
as  a  people,  but  rather  because  of  our  blind  ignorance  of 
their  true  nature,  distinctive  objects,  and  priceless  value,  or 
to  a  perverse  determination  to  close  our  eyes  to  the  li^ht 
alike  of  immutable  truth  and  of  enlightened  experience. 


20 


THE  FUTURE  OF  NORMAL  SCHOOLS  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES. 

He  who  in  this  country  sits  down  deliberately  to  calculate 
the  cost  of  its  Teachers,  at  the  same  time  puts  a  price  upon 
the  privileges  and  the  blessings  which  under  the  benignant 
sway  of  its  government,  he  is  permitted  to  enjoy.  And  on 
the  other  hand  he  who  would  even  approximate  to  the  value 
of  our  true,  intelligent,  and  faithful  Teachers  must,  as  a  pre- 
liminary step,  absolutely  determine  the  value  of  these  same 
privileges  and  blessings.  And  again,  he  who  feels  that  under 
the  operation  of  this  principle  of  self-government,  he  has  a 
superabundance  of  the  good  gifts  which  it  imparts,  will  find 
that  the  most  philosophical  mode  of  removing  these  incum- 
brances  is  to  offer  a  premium  for  incompetent  and  inefficient 
School  Masters,  and  send  them  abroad  to  stultify  and  pervert 
the  juvenile  mind  of  the  community. 

But  if  there  be  any  who  feel  deeply  sensible  that  an 
abnormal  abridgment  of  their  rights  and  privileges  has 
already  occurred ;  if  there  be  any  who  have  a  remote  sus- 
picion that  justice  is  a  costly  commodity,  and  difficult  to 
secure,  at  any  price,  that  virtue  and  truth  are  held  at  a  ruin- 
ous rate  of  discount,  that  portentous  signs  of  anarchy  and 
disorder  are  distinctly  visible,  that  pauperism,  idiocy,  insanity, 
vice,  and  crime,  already  stalk  abroad  over  the  land  in  frightful 
procession,  that  our  houses  of  correction  and  our  peniten- 
taries  are  unduly  patronized,  that  the  demons  of  corruption, 
avarice,  and  misrule,  like  so  many  vampires,  are  extracting 
the  life  blood  of  the  body  politic, — if  any  have  come  to  a  reali- 
.zing  sense  of  these  startling  facts,  they  are  in  some  measure 
prepared  to  appreciate  the  value  and  importance  to  the  He- 


21 

publican  Commonwealth  of  a  band  of  whole-souled,  well- 
trained,  and  devoted  Teachers  of  youth.  If  passing  a  step 
farther,  they  are  penetrated  by  an  intense  desire  to  see  these 
evils  eradicated — not  covered — and  if  they  in  honesty  and 
sincerity,  seek  for  the  most  effective  means  for  their  removal, 
they  have  but  to  exercise  that  ordinary  common  sense  so 
highly  commendable  in  every  other  pursuit,  to  perceive,  and 
to  know,  that  these  same  humble  Teachers,  imbued  with  the 
humanitarian  spirit,  filled  with  a  sense  of  the  magnitude  of 
their  mission,  specially  drilled  and  prepared  for  their  special 
work,  and  full  of  energy  and  zeal  for  its  accomplishment, 
— that  these  offer  the  surest,  the  only  practical  mode  for  the 
solution  of  so  great  and  so  important  a  problem. 

The  Prussians  say  that,  "whatever  you  would  have  appear 
in  the  life  of  a  Nation,  you  must  put  into  its  Schools."  But 
they  may  with  equal  truth,  go  still  farther,  and  affirm  that 
whatever  you  would  put  into  its  Schools,  you  must  put  into 
its  Teachers,  and  whatever  you  would  put  into  its  Teachers, 
you  must  first  put  into  its  Normal  Schools.  No  combination 
of  words  could  be  made  more  forcibly  to  express  the  direct 
and  intimate  relation  of  the  Normal  School,  not  only  to  the 
people,  but  to  the  Government  itself.  In  determining  the 
future  of  these  Institutions,  therefore,  their  numbers,  their 
influence,  in  moulding  the  moral,  intellectual,  social,  and 
political  character  of  our  people,  we  may  say  with  impressive 
distinctness,  that  we  likewise  determine  the  future  of  our 
Government  as  founded  upon  the  principle  of  popular  virtue 
and  intelligence. 

Wherefore,  does  it  not  become  our  Government  and  every 
subject  of  that  government  by  every  means  in  its  and  his 
power  to  multiply,  build  up,  and  perfect  that  instrumentality 
by  which  more  than  by  any  other,  the  blessings  of  liberty  are 


to  be  preserved,  perpetuated  and  increased,  through  all 
coming  time  ? 

In  Europe,  these  Institutions  have  been,  according  to  our 
ideas,  perverted  to  the  strengthening,  preservation,  and  per- 
petuation of  arbitrary  power.  But  how  much  more  may  they 
become  the  means  in  the  hands  of  freemen  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  great  doctrine  of  equal  rights,  and  of  the  inviola- 
bility of  our  immortal  natures,  as  well  as  for  cementing  those 
ties  of  unity  and  of  brotherhood  so  conductive  to  the  welfare, 
progress  and  happiness  of  a  free  people. 

The  great  length  of  this  paper  will  not  permit  a  more 
extended  development  of  the  train  of  thought  here  initiated, 
and  the  undersigned  is  compelled  somewhat  abruptly  to  ter- 
minate it  by  the  enunciation  of  a  few  concise,  yet  self-evident 
propositions  which  must  commend  themselves  to  the  assent 
and  approbation  of  every  honest  and  intelligent  mind. 

1.  A  Free  Government  is,  and  ever  must  be  based  upon  the 
fundamental   idea   of   virtue    and    intelligence,    universally 
diffused  among  the  people. 

2.  This  virtue  and  intelligence  can  be  adequately  secured 
only  by  means  of  the  thorough  mental  and  moral  training 
afforded   by  a  general   system   of  effectively  administered 
Schools. 

3.  These  Schools   depend  for  their  value  and  efficiency 
upon  a  perpetual  supply  of  well  trained  and  properly  qualified 
Teachers. 

4.  All  experience,  no  less  than  the  dictates  of  common 
sense,  has  demonstrated  that  an  adequate  supply  of  compe- 
tent Teachers,  fitted  for  the  high  duty  of  rearing  a  Nation  of 


23 


intelligent  Freemen,  can  be  secured  only  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  Normal  Schools  comprehending  their  great 
and  distinctive  mission,  and  organized  and  conducted  with 
direct  reference  to  the  fulfilment  of  that  mission. 

5.  Whence  it  follows  that  when  these  self-evident  truths 
come  to  be  fully  understood  and  acknowledged,  Normal 
Schools  will  become  co-extensive  with  the  wants  of  the  people, 
and  co-equal  with  the  power,  the  dignity,  and  the  importance 
of  the  Government  itself. 

Wherefore  let  these  impressive  truths  sink  deep  into  the 
hearts  of  all  who  cherish  the  priceless  blessings  of  good 
government  and  of  social  order.  Let  them  be  pondered  by 
those  upon  whom  is  imposed  the  responsibility  of  conducting 
the  Normal  "Experiment,"  that  it  be  so  conducted  as  to 
vindicate  that  perfection  of  common  sense  upon  which 
these  Institutions  repose.  Let  them  be  weighed  by  the 
great  mass  of  our  "Popular  Sovereigns,"  and  by  their 
servant,  the  Government,  whose  first  duty  it  is  to  foster, 
encourage,  perpetuate,  and  support.  Let  them  not  only 
sink  deep  into  the  heart,  let  them  not  only  be  pondered 
and  weighed,  but  let  them  spring  up  and  bring  forth  prolific 
fruits  to  the  enduring  welfare  and  glory  of  our  country,  and 
the  happiness  of  our  race. 


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